Source: James Preston, Flickr
The Affect and the Albatross
What is the One World Centre?
The One World Centre implements the Global Education Project, a
professional learning initiative, for educators in WA.
We offer professional development workshops on a range of global and
development issues at the centre, in schools and at universities for teachers
and pre-service teachers.
Education Officers work with teachers and schools on programmes and
resources, and to take a whole school approach to global education.
The OWC library provides a wide range of global education teaching and
learning resources suitable for teachers and students.
Check out the OWC at:
www.oneworldcentre.org.au
What’s Global Education?
“Enabling young people to participate in a better shared
future for all is at the heart of global education.
Global education promotes open-mindedness leading to
new thinking about the world and a predisposition to take
action for change. Students learn to take responsibility for
their actions, respect and value diversity, and see
themselves as global citizens who can contribute to a
more peaceful, just and sustainable world”
Global Perspectives: A framework for global education in Australian Schools
Commonwealth of Australia, 2008
Source: USFWS, Flickr
“Most global education materials seem to presume that
appropriate enquiry followed by action for change will
naturally lead to students feeling more empowered. But
this is not necessarily the case.
What is often missing is the affective dimension. Whilst
this is true for much of the curriculum, it matters most
when we want students to explore major issues that
actually threaten the human condition.”
Source: David Hicks ‘The Challenge of Teaching Controversial Issues’, 2007
How do we recognise affective learning?
• Krathwohl’s Taxonomy
– Receiving: listens and pays attention
– Responding: shows interest and active
participation
– Valuing: joins in and takes responsibility
– Organisation: brings together different values to
build an internally consistent value system
– Characterisation: consistently behaves according to
a value system
HOPES
AND
FEARS
‘unveil opportunities for hope, no
matter what the obstacles might be’
Paûlo Freire
Williams Taxonomy
A taxonomy of creative thinking
skills that combines cognitive and
affective domains
Image Source: marttj, Flickr
Cognitive Thinking Skills
Write a list of things that can be found in the ocean,
including as many as you can think of in 2 minutes.
Fluency…a way to think of a large
quantity of responses to a stimulus
Make a case for which things ‘belong’
and which ‘don’t belong’ in the ocean.
Flexibility…a way to take different
approaches to stimulus or seek variety
and shift in categories.
Describe the most unique method you can think of
for keeping land rubbish out of oceans?
Originality…way to think of novel or
unique ways or to produce clever,
unobvious responses.
Rachel Carson suggests that a child can learn about the
night sky with an adult “even if you don’t know the
name of a single star”. What do you think can be learnt
by simply experiencing and sharing nature?
Elaboration…a way to add on to
responses or expand on simple ideas
Source: NPCA Photos, Flickr
Image Source: CHRISTOPHER MACSURAK, Flickr
Affective Thinking Skills
The person next to you has just dropped their bottle cap
on the foot path in front of you and kept walking. What
do you say to them?
Risk taking…a way to think with
courage by exposing oneself to failure
or criticism
Plastic is a convenience, a lifesaver
and a death-trap. Discuss.
Complexity…thinking in a way that
brings order to chaos and delves into
complex ideas
How could plastic end up being
consumed by people?
Curiosity…the willingness to follow a
hunch, ponder a mystery or toy with an
idea.
You have a laser that will transform all examples of any object it is
fired at, rendering them biodegradable. What 3 objects do you
aim it at, and how does life on Earth change?
Imagination… having the power to
build on mental images or wonder
about things that have never
happened.
Ms. Wallace's 4th grade students are learning about ecology and the environment.
They are reading about the damage that pollution can cause to fragile ecosystems.
During the week that they are studying this topic, nothing in her class is thrown
away. Each student has a bag by his or her desk in which they place the things they
would normally toss into the trash can. By the end of the week, the room is
becoming a cluttered and somewhat smelly place. Ms. Wallace wants her students
to be able to explain how plants, animals, and the environment interrelate. She
also wants them to understand their own role in changing the environment and to
become more thoughtful citizens of the planet.
In Ms. Wallace's ecology class, students are gradually forced to confront the
accumulating consequences of their trash production. They research alternatives
to disposable packaging and create a display of environmentally conscious choices.
The overflowing trash bags create cognitive dissonance, and their research helps
them develop attractive dissonance-reducing choices. By creating the display, they
have publicly advocated and modelled positive attitudes and behaviours, thus
becoming more likely to internalize them.
Emotional Engagement Techniques
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Self disclosure
Modelling emotions
Empowerment
Suspense – curiosity, uncertainty or anticipation
Surprise
Telling stories
Humour
Fostering wonder and imagination
Provoking short term negative emotions eg
disgust, fear
Some examples from the AC:Science
Theme
Living things have basic needs, including food and water (ACSSU002)
Y1
Y2
Y3
Y4
Observable changes occur in the sky and landscape(ACSSU019)
The basic needs of living
things
Changes in the land and sky
Earth’s resources, including water, are used in a variety of ways (ACSSU032)
Using water
Earth’s rotation on its axis causes regular changes, including night and day (ACSSU048)
Night and Day
Earth’s surface changes over time as a result of natural processes and human
activity (ACSSU075)
Y5
Scientific understandings, discoveries and inventions are used to solve problems that
directly affect peoples’ lives (ACSHE100)
Human impact on the Earth’s
surface
Science in daily life
Y6
The growth and survival of living things are affected by the physical conditions of
their environment(ACSSU094)
1.
investigating how changing the physical conditions for plants impacts on their
growth and survival such as salt water, use of fertilizers and soil types
Growing plants
Y7
Some of Earth’s resources are renewable, but others are non-renewable (ACSSU116)
Y8
Science and technology contribute to finding solutions to a range of contemporary issues;
these solutions may impact on other areas of society and involve ethical
considerations (ACSHE135)
Renewable and nonrenewable resources
Ethical application of science
and technology
Y9
Ecosystems consist of communities of interdependent organisms and abiotic components
of the environment; matter and energy flow through these systems (ACSSU176)
F
1.
Y 10
Bushfires, droughts and
flooding
investigating how ecosystems change as a result of events such as bushfires,
drought and flooding
Global systems, including the carbon cycle, rely on interactions involving the biosphere,
lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere (ACSSU189)
1.
investigating how human activity affects global systems
Changing climate
‘Education is not the filling of a bucket
but the starting of a fire’
WB Yeats